Objectives
The objective of the practice module is twofold:
- Firstly, to expose participants to real world problems so that they may practice the use of the knowledge and skills they have learned during the component courses in a coherent manner.
- Secondly, to enable participants to demonstrate their proficiency across all of the skills and practical knowledge that they have learned in the courses.
Prerequisites
Participants must have successfully completed all three component courses before undertaking the Practice Module:
- Architecting Platforms as a Business (APAB)
- Strategic Product Market Fit (SPMF)
- Digital Product Delivery (DPD)
Components
Scrum Documentation Portfolio (Team — Pass/Revise gate)
Teams adopt Scrum as their operating model for the full duration of the module. Sprint plans, backlogs, standups, and retrospectives are maintained and submitted as a portfolio. Assessed on consistency and rigour of process.
Delivery Practice Assessment (Team — 15%)
Teams produce a Delivery Practice Assessment that evolves as a living document across all six sprints. Starting from team structure, technology stack decisions, release management, and delivery constraints, the assessment deepens with each sprint as three curveballs — simulated delivery disruptions — require teams to reassess and adapt. A versioned snapshot is submitted at each sprint boundary. The assessment concludes with a pre-mortem and an Executive Synthesis.
Platform Analysis (Team — 15%)
Applying APAB frameworks, teams assess the platform potential of the same product — examining market dynamics, value exchange between participants, network effects, assumption validation, core asset identification, and governance requirements — and produce a recommendation on whether and how a platform model should be pursued. Teams without a suitable product may use the provided fallback case.
PMF Assessment Plan (Team — 15%)
Applying SPMF frameworks, teams produce a structured product–market fit assessment for a product they have professional familiarity with: customer segment definition, customer voice analysis, a hypothesis set, a validation experiment design, and engagement and retention metrics.
Portfolio Panel Defence (Team — 15%)
Teams present all three deliverables to a panel of NUS-ISS faculty and at least one external industry practitioner, and defend their analytical reasoning under Q&A. Panel session: 15-minute presentation + 20-minute Q&A per team.
Individual Test (Individual — 20%)
In-person, closed-book written assessment. Participants evaluate a product case study applying concepts from all three modular courses. Short-essay format, 60 minutes. Two double-sided A4 reference sheets permitted.
Individual Reflection (Individual — 20%)
Structured written submission (~1,000–1,500 words) covering personal contribution to the team project, a practice retrospective — what this module changed about how you approach product decisions, and the specific adjustments you will make to your professional practice, including reflection on AI tool use — and a confidential peer review of team members’ contributions.
Application (For Stackable Students)
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Semester 1 (Jul to Nov)
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Application*
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15 Apr to 15 Jun
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Payment Deadline
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30 Jun
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Briefing
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First two weeks of Jul
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* Eligible participants will be contacted 1 week after application closure.
Note:
- Participants are only allowed to take the practice module after completing all courses in the Grad Cert.
- Participants who wish to take the practice module concurrently in the same semester with the courses in the same Grad Cert must write to ask-iss@nus.edu.sg citing reasons by the application deadline. Email requests received after the deadline will not be considered. Requests will be reviewed after the deadline and approved on a case-by-case basis.
- Participants who miss the application window will have to apply for the practice module in the next semester.
- Participants who do not attend the briefing will be withdrawn from the practice module.
Apply Here